During the campaign, President Barack Obama minimized discussion of his first term’s most consequential new law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or what’s commonly referred to as Obamacare.

That was no accident. Undoubtedly, the campaign knew that Obamacare is, as it always has been, deeply unpopular with the American people. In fact, Obamacare epitomizes the public’s greatest concerns about this administration: the massive expansion of government and failure to deliver a new era of post-partisanship to Washington, since the law was jammed through using a party line vote and every available legislative trick. Bringing up health care risked stirring the passions that fueled the tea party’s rise and the Democrats’ defeat in 2010.

Yet, research conducted by the polling company, inc./WomanTrend for Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) shows that health care was an important concern for Americans on Election Day. The president was reelected in spite of voters’ lingering distaste for Obamacare, and the health care issue will remain a critical issue for voters moving forward.

Just a quarter, or 26 percent of those surveyed by the polling company on Election Day supported implementing Obamacare completely. Even less than half (48 percent) of self-identified Democrats want full implementation, suggesting that the health care law remains a liability, even within the president’s party.

Forty-three percent of voters surveyed want Congress to either “just repeal the law” (30 percent) or move toward repeal, while pursuing other measures - including defunding, amending, and blocking - to prevent its implementation (13 percent). Another quarter (23 percent) favor amending the law, rather than full repeal.

Jobs and the economy was the hands-down winner (at 41 percent) as the issue most often cited by voters asked what issue was most important for determining their vote. But health care was the second most often cited issue (at nine percent), followed by “government programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid” (eight percent), and “government spending,” both of which could include concerns about Obamacare.

When asked specifically about the role health care played in determining their vote, two-thirds (67 percent) of voters said it was “very important” that the candidates they supported want to “repeal and then replace” the new health care law. Only five percent of voters thought this was “not at all important.” Indeed, on this measure, 2012 voters echoed 2010 voters in identifying Obamacare as a key symbol of government overreach.

Only 15 percent of voters were willing to vote for a candidate who did not share their preferences on Obamacare, compared to 78 percent who said they stayed true to supporting only candidates who shared their health care vision. For all of the talk about the gender gap, women and men’s views on Obamacare rarely diverged by more than a few percentage points.

Conservatives and Republicans disappointed by last week’s results can view these findings as an opportunity and the health care issue as an important building block for expanding their base of support. The American people remain uncomfortable with the Democrats’ push to have government take charge of the country’s medical system. In the coming months, as the American people continue to see more of the consequences of implementation - such as employers moving to limit workers’ hours or cut overall employment to limit their exposure to Obamacare’s costs - they can come to see the health care issue as a key component of our larger economic crisis, and as fueling the joblessness that remains their most pressing concern.

Indeed, the Obamacare experience could become a teaching moment for conservatives to demonstrate more broadly how big government, burdensome regulations, and high taxes are the enemy of job creation, and are particularly devastating to the country’s most vulnerable workers, including those who work part-time or hold low-wage positions. Other survey research has shown that economic literacy - an understanding of key facts about the economy and public policies’ impact - is associated with greater support for limited government and economic liberty.

Republicans shouldn’t let Obamacare’s crash course on the unintended consequences of government meddling go unheard. With the American people already instinctively wary of Obamacare, they are primed to hear more about the law’s ill effects and the reasons why our country can’t afford to let this massive government initiative become a permanent drag on our economy.

As the political class is still sifting through the election data, there is one finding that should be clear: Obama may have won the support of a majority of Americans in 2012, but Obamacare didn’t.

Carrie Lukas is the vice president for policy of Independent Women’s Voice.